


Tied down to fate

by PalladsAndConverse



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Major character death - Freeform, im sorry, not sorry, they both die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-11-02
Packaged: 2017-12-31 06:48:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1028566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PalladsAndConverse/pseuds/PalladsAndConverse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has just woken up from a coma, and Louis has a secret</p>
<p>(or the one where Louis has sold his soul to the devil)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tied down to fate

**Author's Note:**

> First time posting yay ~

“Hey, Harry, whatcha doing here this late in the evening?”

My head turned to the direction the oh-so-well-known-voice was coming from. I smiled, though.

“Looking at the stars, don’t you think they’re beautiful?” I said, and Louis chuckled.

“I guess they are, mate,” he replied, and sat down next to me in the open field. “You shouldn’t be alone here, though. What if the fans found you? Or you hit your head, and go back to stage one of your-”

“Louis,” I cut him off. “Don’t worry about it. I’m okay now. It may have been a miracle that I’m still alive, but I am.”

He relaxed.

“I know, Haz, but I’m still worried, y’know.” His gaze wandered off to the beautiful sky above us.

“The great Tommo is worried about little Hazza, huh?” I laughed. He pouted, and pulled some grass out of the ground to throw it at me.

“I’m your best mate, I should worry. You just woke up from a coma, you cunt!” He slapped me lightly on the arm, and I laughed even harder in return.

“I- I’m so- Sorry!”

He pouted, and stood up.

“Well, mister you’re-too-worried-about-nothing, I’ll be going,” he said, and walked to our bungalow. I sighed, and reluctantly walked after him. 

“Sorry, Lou, it’s just that. . .” I muttered. He turned around, looking at me while walking backwards, and I had to jog a little to keep up with him.

“Just that?” He raised a brow. I frowned.

“Everything’s building up on my shoulders, and I’m still not sure how I got into a coma anyway. I have amnesia, remember?” I replied, poking the side of my head while looking at him. This made Louis look down to his feet, and my frown deepened.

“Something wrong?” I asked.  He sighed, and kept looking at the grass that waved with the wind.

“You wouldn’t understand.” He shrugged it off, but I felt an enormous flood of guilt wash through me.

“It’s about me, though,” I stated. “Isn’t it?”

He finally looked back to me, and shrugged.

“It may be, but it isn’t that important now.” He sighed. “I’d like you to make me a cuppa though, and can you help me with something?” he asked. I nodded after shrugging my shoulders.

“Watcha need help with?” I grinned, expecting him to joke a bit, but his serious face stayed. The grin I wore slowly disappeared, and I frowned again.

“This is very important, Haz, but please, do not tell anyone.”

Okay, this is becoming scary.

“Lou? What do you mean, important?” I asked. “If it’s that important, we should tell the others, right?” But he shook his head, feathery hair waving in all directions.

“This should stay between you and me, mainly because you’re the main cause of this,” he explained. I stopped walking, and looked at him questioning this statement.

“What did I do, then?” I said, waiting for and wanting an explanation for this. “Before the coma, I mean. Was it something that happened then?” I tried, because I hadn’t had a clue about what happened the past months, but he shook his head again, and sadly looked at me.

“Haz, let’s just say I kind of sold my soul to the devil?”

My eyes widened, and froze.

That was a little too direct, for me.

“Y-  You mean, I woke up, because you- Because of- You just-” I stuttered. He grinned.

“Let’s not go back to the bungalow, yet. I actually wanted to tell you this tomorrow, but this seems to be a little better situation.” He motioned me to go with him, and we quietly walked to the lake.

“So. . .” I begun, not really knowing what to say. Louis just stared at the water flowing back and forth the shore. I have to say, the night was truly breathtaking. The reflection of the night sky in the water, and the green forest next to the clear lake was beyond imagination. It truly looked like something you’d see in a film. Louis probably thought the same, but there was something about him that looked awfully sad. He sighed, and sat down on a wooden bench at the small beach the lake had formed. Now, he turned his head to me, as if asking me to sit down next to him.

Of course I obliged.

“I’ll tell you the story now, I guess,” he said, looking back to the paradise we called our bungalow garden.

“We both got into an accident, as you know. I woke up a day after the surgery, but you got into a coma. When you did, the doctors absolutely gave up on you. You were practically brain-dead. I, though, didn’t,” he told me, already lost in the thoughts. I nodded, already knowing this part. The doctors told it themselves after I woke up.

“I was so scared that I’d lost you, and I almost spent every day crying on my bed. The others thought I was depressed, so they sent me to a therapist. She said that she understood what I was going through. Though, I only found out she experienced exactly the same after you woke,” he chuckled lightly.

“I was diagnosed with depression, eventually, and every interview and concert was done not only without you, but also without me. I stayed with you the entire time, though.

“I literally tried everything to wake you up. I threw a glass of water over your head, I spoke with you, I sang for you, I even kissed you, like in those fairytales.” He sighed tiredly. “I’m sorry for that, too.” I chuckled.

“Don’t be, I understand.” I replied, fully knowing why he did that. “If you would lie there, brain dead, I’d also try to wake you through a kiss.” He smiled at that, probably feeling less guilty now. I motioned him to continue.

“When it had almost been half a year without you, I almost had given up, too. I started cutting, burning, snapping rubber bands. Everything I could imagine. I felt so helpless, I couldn’t help you.

“Then, I started researching wishes. There were a lot of stories on Google, about wishing wells, about ceremonies giving luck, about certain places where you could buy one wish, which was probably all just dumb arseholes getting lots of money from it, but I also found certain articles about people trying to trade their soul for a wish. This made me genuinely interested, and tried it myself. I kept telling myself, it won’t work anyway, why not just try?”

Louis grimaced, and I gasped. No way. . .

“It did work. Right in front of my eyes, the devil appeared, and threaten me if I summoned without thinking about something first. I’d get killed if I wouldn’t say anything. I took it as my chance, because, hey, what’s up to lose?” I frowned.

“Well, your life, obviously. I may have been brain-dead, but that doesn’t mean you should’ve killed yourself,” I said, feeling a lot more uncomfortable than I had before.

“Too bad I wasn’t thinking straight. Harry, don’t you understand?” His voice shivered.

“I got to see what my life would be without you, for half a year. I was totally done. I was dead, I wasn’t Louis ‘the Tommo’ anymore. I wasn’t Louis from One Direction anymore either. I was no one.

“So when _He_ appeared, I asked him to wake you up, to heal you and make you healthy again. He did. The day after, I woke up because of a call from the hospital. You’d woken up, and nothing was wrong with you anymore, except for a small amnesia of two three months before the accident. I was so happy, I literally got into my car in my pyjamas and  drove to the hospital to check on you. Your hair had grown, you looked so pale, but everything was alive again. I, though, wasn’t.”

Louis’ breath hitched in his throat, and shivered. I had frozen long ago, not believing what I heard.

“It was then, when you looked me into my eyes, that I knew I had done the wrong thing. You were alive, yes, but I was dead. You’d never want me  dead because of you. I’m practically a zombie now.” He chuckled lightly at his joke, but it didn’t sound amusing to himself at all, I knew.

“Do you feel guilty about it?” I asked. He raised his head, looking at me the first time in what felt like years, but nodded.

“I feel so fucking guilty about it, you don’t even know.” He sniffed, and I smiled at him.

“Don’t be, though. I’m right here. You’ll make it through,” I said, and hugged him close.

His sniffles intensified, and soon he was sobbing all over the dark silence we had found ourselves in earlier that night.

I kept his head in my chest, while playing with his hair until he calmed down again.

“Lou, if you really sold your soul to the devil, how can you still feel emotions?” I wondered. He slowly got up from my gentle hold, and wiped his face clean before shrugging.

“I still have a soul, just not inside my body anymore,” he chuckled tear-eyed. His cheeks were rosy, and I frowned.

“Where is it then, in hell?”

He gasped, and wildly shook his head, because no.

“God, no!” He pouted. “It’s actually right here.”

My eyes widened at the familiar silver ring.

“I thought you got that from Eleanor?” I said, but he frowned as he gently took it off, and kept it in his hand a few seconds. “Uh. . . No, where did you get that idea?”

“I thought you two got married, or engaged or something, while I was down. . .” I muttered, and he chuckled.

“Eleanor and I actually broke up two weeks after you got into a coma. She said I was becoming obsessed with you, and I guess wanted more of my attention?” He made it sound more like a question, but I shook it off.

“I didn’t even love her anymore, you were far more important. Oh, and, here’s my soul. Want to hold it?” he joked. I inhaled a sharp breath, because, yes, I did, but what if I broke it or accidently dropped it or-

“It can’t break,” he informed me with a calming undertone in his voice. I hesitantly nodded, and he opened his hand to hand me over the small silver item, but my eyes widened once again.

“Please tell me I’m not hallucinating because I swear it was a ring ten seconds ago.”

He giggled, and shook his head.

“No, you’re not hallucinating, I just transformed its shape. This is the original,” he told me, and handed me the small what-was-once-a-ring.

“It shows what you really are, from the inside, Lucifer said,” said Lou, and he looked away to the lake once more.

“So, you’re actually a rope?” I wondered out loud, obviously not understanding the reason, and looked from the silver rope to Louis. He laughed.

“No, silly. A knot.”

I frowned.

“What’s the difference?”

He smiled. “A lot, actually. A rope shows freedom, while a knot shows you’re stuck somewhere and maybe even with yourself. A rope shows you’re loose and nothing keeps you from where you want to go, a knot shows you have to keep yourself together to make it.”

My face fell.

“So a rope tells you you’re okay, but a knot tells you you’re troubled?” I asked, looking back to the male next to me. He shrugged while nodding.

 “That’s one way to look at it. I’d just say you’re stuck somewhere, or you need to tie yourself down to something to keep hold of something.”

I nodded my head, and turned back to the silver knot in my hand. No finger prints appeared, and it was still as clean as it was around Louis’ finger.

 “Can the original shape change?” I asked after thinking a bit. Louis frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I mean, like, when you’re not actually troubled anymore, or not tied down to something, can it change to a normal piece of rope?”

Louis thought for some time, before shaking his perfect looking face, whipping his hair around.

“I have no idea, actually. Sorry,” he said. I looked back to him, and carefully gave him the silverware back.

“Why apologise when there’s nothing to apologise for?” I asked, and smiled. He grinned, and playfully hit my back.

“That’s the Harry I know!” He said, and I was glad I finally got to see the normal Louis again, too.

We sat in front of the lake for a while, before a question appeared in my mind.

“What was it like?”

“What was what like?” he asked. I fiddled in my seat, a little awkward to ask the question, as if I was scared to hear his reply.

“. . . Meeting the devil?” I eventually let my curiosity do the work. “Getting your soul ripped out of your body?”

He flinched at my chose of words.

“That’s not how I’d say it, but I’ll live with it,” he said, but took a large breath.

“Lucifer, as he asked me to call him, is quite a normal person. Maybe a little taller than average, but he looks quite normal. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a hobby of walking on Earth in his free time, nobody would notice anything,” he said.

“I was too shocked to move, at first. I mean, if the devil suddenly stood in your room, you’d probably have the same reaction.” He grinned, but soon it changed into a grimace.

“He asked me what my wish was, and I stuttered something about you, not able to formulate words yet. Then, he threatened to kill me immediately if I had called him here for no reason at all, but I finally came to my senses and asked him to heal you. He stepped back, and nodded. That was when I actually felt pain in my chest. Not physical pain, like breaking a rib or something. Real pain, from the soul.” Louis chuckled. “I fell unconscious, and woke up in my bed. First I thought I had a weird dream, but then I got the call from the hospital, and yeah, you know it from there.” He grimaced at me, and I shivered.

“I’m sorry you had to go though that, Lou. I really am.” I snapped to myself. “If I wasn’t so stupid to actually cross the road at that moment you wouldn’t have followed me and we’d both- ”

“Haz, don’t worry. I’m alright, okay? I’m just going to hell when I die,” he chuckled once more.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

“Lou, where did you find that ritual, and how did you perform it?”

\--

“Haz? I’m home!” I shout. The shopping bags are starting to hurt my arms, so I drop them in the kitchen before I head to the hallway.

“Haz?” I call, frowning. He hasn’t been himself lately, so I am quite worried already, but I shrug it off.

Suddenly a silhouette appeared above the stairs, and smile.

“Haz! Are you coming?” I ask, but the silhouette doesn’t reply. I frown, and head to the staircase.

“Good to see you, too, Louis,” the figure says, and my mouth goes dry.

“What are you doing here? I thought we concluded the deal?” I raise my voice, and immediately I start to worry about Harry.

“We did, but apparently Harry here didn’t think so,” Lucifer says, and I freeze.

“What did Haz do?” I ask when I’m able to speak again. Lucifer grinned.

“He thought it would be a good idea to wish for your safety when you die.”

He snapped his fingers, and the ring around my middle left finger slowly dissolves in the air. A warm feeling I haven’t felt in a year immediately flows through my body, and I sob.

“Harry. . . Did he- Did he wish for. . . No, Haz. . .” I mutter, not believing what I just witnessed. I run upstairs, pushing the devil out of the way, and don’t even bother knocking on the door of our bedroom.

“Haz!”

A body lies still on the bed, and gasps when he heard my voice. Slowly, Harry turns around, and faces me. Multiple tears appear on my face, and I start crying.

“You bloody idiot, why?!” I sob, and run towards the bed, only falling next to him and hugging him to death.

“Don’t worry, Louis. It’s what I deserve . . .” he whispers, and I tear up again. “I should’ve been dead long ago, anyway.”

A small ring is placed around his finger, and he notices me looking at it.

“Did you know it’s a rope?” He weakly smiles. “Look.”

The ring is taken off, and in his hand lies a small silver rope, just like mine, but-.

“There’s no knot,” he says out loud, as far as his tiredness can be loud. “I honestly think this is the right thing.”

I sob, and hide my face in his chest.

“I also wished, Lou, that you’d always keep your soul inside, did you know that?” he continues weakly. I shake my head, because no, I didn’t. And I don’t want to.

“Now we’re even, aren’t we?” He chuckles lightly, and I cry harder.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen, Harry!” I shout. “You were supposed to enjoy life! You were supposed to live! Live while we’re young, remember?!” His now wet t-shirt is stretched, and Harry gets up, leaving me on the bed.

“Trust me, I’m sure I like this feeling more than you,” he giggles, and stumbles out the room. I quickly follow him. Lucifer is long gone, and I know this is not fixable anymore.

 

_But what they both didn’t know, is that this is the day both of them died._

_Three band members and best friends cry over their loss, two mothers and step-fathers sob at the grave, and one hospital looks down, disappointed in themselves with not being able to help two helpless boys that got into an accident._

_Rings around their fingers, the graves close._


End file.
